In her bestselling and critically acclaimed novel Chocolat, Joanne Harris told a lush story of the conflicts between pleasure and repression. Now she delivers her most complex and sophisticated work yet, an unforgettable tale of mothers and daughters, of the past and the present, of resisting and... show more

In her bestselling and critically acclaimed novel Chocolat, Joanne Harris told a lush story of the conflicts between pleasure and repression. Now she delivers her most complex and sophisticated work yet, an unforgettable tale of mothers and daughters, of the past and the present, of resisting and succumbing -- an extraordinary work of fiction lined with darkness and fierce joy.When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year....

Throughout the story, my opinion of several characters wavered back and forth between positive and negative emotions. Often, the characters seemed so manipulative, so immature, so cruel and mindless, that it seemed there was no room for kindness or compassion on the pages, and I wondered where the s...

Throughout the story, my opinion of several characters wavered back and forth between positive and negative emotions. Often, the characters seemed so manipulative, so immature, so cruel and mindless, that it seemed there was no room for kindness or compassion on the pages, and I wondered where the s...

I enjoyed this book but the children seemed so much older than they were. I read this explanation by Laura Merrill Miller for their cruelty: "But five quarters? There is no such thing – there we have the logic of children: split an orange five ways and what do you get? Five quarters. It’s a subtle r...

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